Disputas – Kenneth Lindstedt

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her! / The doctoral thesis is available here!

Auditoriet er åpent for publikum. Disputasen strømmes og et opptak vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn.
The auditorium is open to the public. The defense will still be streamed, and a recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne starter kl. 10.15 / The trial lecture starts at 10.15
Tittel/Title:  “Studying functions of the human gut microbiome”
Prøveforelesningen strømmes her / The trial lecture will be streamed here

Disputasen starter kl. 12.15 / The defense starts at 12.15
Disputasen strømmes her / The defense will be streamed here

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen/ Summary of the thesis

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a bacterium that can cause serious infections and spread resistance to antibiotics in the hospital and the community. In this study we show K. pneumoniae is also frequently a silent inhabitant of the gut of healthy people.

While most can get rid themselves of this bacterium fairly quickly, we found in some people K. pneumoniae can persist for many months. What’s more, certain beneficial bacteria appear to have an important role in kicking K. pneumoniae out of the gut.

To perform this work, we first developed and tested new highly sensitive cutting-edge methods to detect K. pneumoniae from gut samples. These were then used to track K. pneumoniae in 108 volunteers from the Tromsø community over six months.

Overall, this study improves our understanding and detection of K. pneumoniae from gut samples. These findings may assist in developing new ways to remove K. pneumoniae from the gut, thereby preventing infection and spread of antibiotic resistance by this pathogen.

Veiledere/ Supervisors:
Hovedveileder/Main supervisor:
Professor Arnfinn Sundsfjord, Institutt for medisinsk biologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Biveiledere/supervisors:

Seniorforsker Torunn Pedersen, Avdeling for mikrobiologi og smittevern, Universitetssykehuset i Nord-Norge
Forsker Erik Hjerde, Institutt for kjemi, Fakultet for naturvitenskap og teknologi, UiT Norges arktiske universitet
Professor Ørjan Samuelsen, Avdeling for mikrobiologi og smittevern, Universitetssykehuset i Nord-Norge  

Bedømmelseskomité/Defensecomitee:
Professor Emma Slack, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich – 1. opponent.
Professor Anders Johansson, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå Universitet – 2. opponent.
Professor Johanna Ericson, Institutt for medisinsk biologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité.

Disputasleder/ Leader of defense:
Professor emeritus Tore Jarl Gutteberg, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.